EN: When I was a kid people used to ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up and my answer was always the same: I want to sell granny’s clothes. At the time people laughed about it because they all knew about my love for my granny’s wardrobe, the real one: my biggest joy was slipping into it, among those beautiful dresses, bags, jewels and shoes. I couldn’t wait to grow up and wear them too! But I didn’t want new clothes, I just wanted hers! With those clothes I used to play “the shop” with my sister: I sold her the beautiful pieces and she was my favorite customer!

When I was a teenager, “selling my granny’s clothes” became “have a second-hand shop”. My vision evolved especially during my very first trips to London and Paris where I realized that the same clothes of my granny’s wardrobe were sold in small shops or on antiques’ markets stalls and they were called second hand in London and friperies in Paris.

When I started university, although I was studying to become a translator, my childhood dream changed name again. Probably I heard that name for the first time at the Montagnola market in Bologna: I wanted to “have a vintage shop” where I could sell all those pieces smelling the past that I used to see in that market’s stalls. In the meanwhile I graduated and I started working but that dream is still there. After all I still dress vintage, I write about vintage and since a few weeks ago I also have a small vintage shop!

Oh yes! That 20-year old dream is slowly turning into reality thanks to a very simple but genius mobile app: Vintag (you can download here). A few months ago I discovered the app on Instagram: I was very curious and I decided to download it. It was such an hectic moment at work so I didn’t have enough time to study it until the Christmas holidays when I realized that in that app there was everything I have been dreaming of: a world full of “granny’s stuff” just a click away! Vintage, antiques, collectibles coming from Italian sellers, a real paradise for vintage lovers. I couldn’t believe it! And it was just the beginning. I mentioned it on my monthly column on Opherty & Ciocci blog as the new era of online vintage shopping: all the Italian vintage in one app! Not only antiques’ shops, vintage clothing and collectors but also many private sellers who want to buy and sell from the sofa, on the subway or during their lunch break…isn’t that great?

I decided to start using it and I found it incredibly quick, practical and user friendly: it takes less than a minute to publish an ad in a very simple and intuitive way.

I also found out that Vintag is a huge community for all the vintage lovers, for the sellers and buyers, for those who are deeply in love with vintage, for the beginners, for the curious, for those who have their granny’s wardrobe still in their heart. Their Facebook page and their Instagram profile are full of interesting contents and they are growing fast. After all Vintag wants to be the biggest Italian vintage community and it will add soon also contents in English.

As if this was not enough I also found out a fantastic service (that I will use soon) of “vintage consulting” that you can activate via email (consulenze@vintag.store) or via the Vintag Facebook community: if you have doubts about the authenticity of an object, about the era or the market value you can contact Vintag to receive an opinion from a team of vintage experts. It often happens to me to find objects that I am not able to date or possible fake for which I always need to wait for an expert opinion (also because I don’t trust self-evaluation with online support that much!).

So in the end TheLadybugChronicles is now a small online vintage shop on Vintag! Some pieces come from my wardrobe (not from my granny’s one though!) and some come from my travel experiences in vintage markets from all over the world. If you want to have a look at my first online vintage shop (I feel excited when I’m writing these words!) you can look for TheLadybugChronicles in the app.

I want to know what you think about my little shop, the Vintag app and the social community…I am very curious to know your opinion!